October 2005

In This Edition

Congress opened the door five years ago for banks to enter the insurance and investment arenas, but the expected rush has yet to occur. That’s probably fine with critics, who feared that the return of universal banks would bring back Depression-like instability.

Over the past 24 years, the U.S. rate of personal bankruptcies jumped nearly 350 percent. The rate varies greatly among states. Tennessee’s rate last year—the highest in the nation—was more than 10 filings per 1,000 people, nearly four times the rate in Massachusetts.